Osage Scalp Dance

John Mix Stanley, Osage Scalp Dance, 1845, oil on canvas, 40 ³⁄₄ x 60 ¹⁄₂ in. (103.5 x 153.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Misses Henry, 1985.66.248,930

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Artwork Details

Title: Osage Scalp Dance
Artist: John Mix Stanley
Date: 1845
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 40 ³⁄₄ x 60 ¹⁄₂ in. (103.5 x 153.6 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Misses Henry
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Ceremony — dance — Scalp Dance
State of being — evil — danger
Indian — Osage
Figure group
Object Number: 1985.66.248,930
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1985.66.248,930

Artwork Description

Melodramatic tales of scalping were popular in Europe and the United States throughout the nineteenth century. John Mix Stanley’s operatic scene shows a villain wielding a war club over a desperate woman's head. A hero who wears a presidential peace medal blocks the club with his spear. By the time Stanley painted this canvas, the government had already begun to subdue native peoples by relocating tribes and fostering warfare among them. This "divide and conquer" policy, together with thrilling narratives of white captives carried off to slavery, helped ease the consciences of European Americans making their way across the continent. Stanley based this fictional image on sketches he made while traveling through the frontier territories in 1842 and 1843.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006